Title: Personal Changes and Choices Grade Level:6th grade Subject Area: English Language Arts Concept: identifying personal change and choice, personal writing, narrative writing Time Frame:50 minutes
Preparing to Teach
A. Goals
CC.6.W.1.d Text Types and Purposes: Establish and maintain a formal style.
CC.6.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
B. Objectives
Students will explain a change or choice they have made and analyze its outcome in narrative format.
C. Materials
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul(paper copies for everyone)
“Six Traits of Effective Writing” PowerPoint
Instructional Sequence
A. Focusing Activity: As the bell rings, students will be given a copy of “The Cost of Gratefulness” (p.163), a short story taken from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Souland a highlighter. I will read this story aloud as students follow along in their copy. As students see moments where the protagonist in the narrative was forced to make a choice or underwent a change, they will highlight that section. Once we have finished reading the story, I will ask students to give examples of change or choice moments they highlighted in their copy. After we have discussed this sufficiently, I will explain to the class that this is a personal narrative and that today they will be writing their own personal narrative about a change or choice.
B. Purpose: I will explain to the students that personal writing is the stepping stone to all other forms of writing, and that in order to succeed at more difficult types of writing, they must first master personal writing. Narrative is one of the most common types of writing (books, magazine articles, blogs, etc). Because of its popularity, it is important that students learn its structure. Also, in order to communicate their own experiences, students must learn how to use narrative form.
C. Instruction: I will pull up the “Six Traits to Effective Writing” PowerPoint on the SmartBoard. For each of the traits, we will discuss what that means for their own narratives. I will provide examples of each of these positive traits in comparison to a poor use of these traits. Students will need to determine (in class discussion) what makes the good one good and the bad one bad. Following this PowerPoint, we will have a mini-lesson on narrative structure. I will start this mini lesson by explaining narrative structure by drawing the plot structure diagram and talking through the elements. First, I will explain the exposition (or in simpler terms “what got us here”). This part of the narrative should be brief and take just a short bit of the story. Next I would explain rising action (which could also be referred to as “build-up” or more specifically “events that form the need for a change or choice”). I would then explain the climax (which is the moment that the change or choice occurs). Finally, I would explain falling action as the resolution and what kind of outcome that change or choice has had. It is in this part of the narrative that the students would analyze the change or choice and it's outcome. To conclude instruction, I will provide an exposition, and the students will work in small groups of 3-4 to create rising action, climax and falling action that correlates with the given exposition. D. Modeling: I will provide a model of a personal narrative from the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soulbook. I will model for the students good uses of the six traits of effective writing on each PowerPoint slide. I also will model narrative structure in the mini-lesson by giving examples of each element.
E. Check for Understanding: I will check for students' understanding of the six traits of effective writing by asking them to identify the good use of the trait alongside the bad use and explain why one is good and one is bad. I will then check for students understanding of narrative structure by having them create the rest of a narrative based on exposition that I give them. Finally, I will check their overall understanding and ability to use these skills by having them write their own narrative—the first draft of which will be due during the next class period.
F. Guided Practice: Students will be working on their own personal narratives about changes and choices. I will provide them with a few writing prompts they can choose from, or they can create their own topic if they would like and they get it approved by me. Students will use handouts of the six traits of effective writing and narrative structure to base their narratives on. Students must focus on a time that they made a change or choice that had a lasting effect or outcome. As students are working on their narratives, I will be walking around the room to answer questions and provide feedback.
G. Independent Practice: First drafts of student narratives are due in class tomorrow. They must finish before then. Each one must be at least two pages if handwritten and at least a page and a half double spaced if typed. They will be peer reviewed in class tomorrow to ensure that they follow the rules we learned in class today.
H: Closure: I will remind students to finish their first drafts for homework, and remind them of length requirements, etc. I will then praise students for their work on their narratives. To connect today's lesson with tomorrow's, I will inform students that they will be participating in a peer review tomorrow, and that we will be attempting to improve writing, so that it more closely follows narrative structure. Finally, I will end by saying that I am excited to hear about the changes and choices that my students have made, as this is one thing that we all can connect and relate to—the need for adaptation.
Grade Level: 6th grade
Subject Area: English Language Arts
Concept: identifying personal change and choice, personal writing, narrative writing
Time Frame: 50 minutes
- CC.6.W.1.d Text Types and Purposes: Establish and maintain a formal style.
- CC.6.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
B. Objectives- Students will explain a change or choice they have made and analyze its outcome in narrative format.
C. MaterialsA. Focusing Activity: As the bell rings, students will be given a copy of “The Cost of Gratefulness” (p.163), a short story taken from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and a highlighter. I will read this story aloud as students follow along in their copy. As students see moments where the protagonist in the narrative was forced to make a choice or underwent a change, they will highlight that section. Once we have finished reading the story, I will ask students to give examples of change or choice moments they highlighted in their copy. After we have discussed this sufficiently, I will explain to the class that this is a personal narrative and that today they will be writing their own personal narrative about a change or choice.
B. Purpose: I will explain to the students that personal writing is the stepping stone to all other forms of writing, and that in order to succeed at more difficult types of writing, they must first master personal writing. Narrative is one of the most common types of writing (books, magazine articles, blogs, etc). Because of its popularity, it is important that students learn its structure. Also, in order to communicate their own experiences, students must learn how to use narrative form.
C. Instruction: I will pull up the “Six Traits to Effective Writing” PowerPoint on the SmartBoard. For each of the traits, we will discuss what that means for their own narratives. I will provide examples of each of these positive traits in comparison to a poor use of these traits. Students will need to determine (in class discussion) what makes the good one good and the bad one bad. Following this PowerPoint, we will have a mini-lesson on narrative structure. I will start this mini lesson by explaining narrative structure by drawing the plot structure diagram and talking through the elements. First, I will explain the exposition (or in simpler terms “what got us here”). This part of the narrative should be brief and take just a short bit of the story. Next I would explain rising action (which could also be referred to as “build-up” or more specifically “events that form the need for a change or choice”). I would then explain the climax (which is the moment that the change or choice occurs). Finally, I would explain falling action as the resolution and what kind of outcome that change or choice has had. It is in this part of the narrative that the students would analyze the change or choice and it's outcome. To conclude instruction, I will provide an exposition, and the students will work in small groups of 3-4 to create rising action, climax and falling action that correlates with the given exposition.
D. Modeling: I will provide a model of a personal narrative from the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul book. I will model for the students good uses of the six traits of effective writing on each PowerPoint slide. I also will model narrative structure in the mini-lesson by giving examples of each element.
E. Check for Understanding: I will check for students' understanding of the six traits of effective writing by asking them to identify the good use of the trait alongside the bad use and explain why one is good and one is bad. I will then check for students understanding of narrative structure by having them create the rest of a narrative based on exposition that I give them. Finally, I will check their overall understanding and ability to use these skills by having them write their own narrative—the first draft of which will be due during the next class period.
F. Guided Practice: Students will be working on their own personal narratives about changes and choices. I will provide them with a few writing prompts they can choose from, or they can create their own topic if they would like and they get it approved by me. Students will use handouts of the six traits of effective writing and narrative structure to base their narratives on. Students must focus on a time that they made a change or choice that had a lasting effect or outcome. As students are working on their narratives, I will be walking around the room to answer questions and provide feedback.
G. Independent Practice: First drafts of student narratives are due in class tomorrow. They must finish before then. Each one must be at least two pages if handwritten and at least a page and a half double spaced if typed. They will be peer reviewed in class tomorrow to ensure that they follow the rules we learned in class today.
H: Closure: I will remind students to finish their first drafts for homework, and remind them of length requirements, etc. I will then praise students for their work on their narratives. To connect today's lesson with tomorrow's, I will inform students that they will be participating in a peer review tomorrow, and that we will be attempting to improve writing, so that it more closely follows narrative structure. Finally, I will end by saying that I am excited to hear about the changes and choices that my students have made, as this is one thing that we all can connect and relate to—the need for adaptation.